The key to successful geodatabase design in ArcGIS 8.3 is laying out the project objectives before you begin. Our team at the Information Center for the Environment at UC Davis is mapping for the US Fish and Wildlife Service National Wetlands Inventory (NWI). This paper addresses how we organized our geodatabase to delineate the wetlands, how we developed a topology, our consideration of national standards, and our methods for synchronizing the data and creating backups.